
I’ve written several times that the way you start your day sets the way you feel the whole day. I’ll try to elaborate so you understand how important it is. It takes a little effort, a little discipline, and a little perseverance to turn the first few minutes of the morning into a full reservoir of energy to consume throughout the day.
First, the morning starts from the previous evening. Don’t eat dinner too late (3-4 hours before bed would be ideal), but don’t go to bed feeling hungry either, because the rumbling of your bowels will wake you up. If you have accustomed your body to mealtimes, it will not protest with hunger at night. Drink a large glass of water an hour before bed to stay hydrated overnight. If in the morning you do not eliminate a large enough amount of urine, it means that you are dehydrated. An hour before bed I said, OK? Not right before bed because you’ll wake up overnight to go to the bathroom and ruin your sleep. You can also drink herbal tea if you like, but still an hour before. Go to bed at a reasonable time, sit quietly and do something that relaxes you: read a few pages, put on a relaxing show on your phone, a podcast with someone with a calm voice, an audio book, soothing music, something with the screen off, meditate or just sit in the dark with your eyes closed. Don’t scroll through facebook, instagram, tiktok, don’t think about unpleasant events, don’t argue with your partner. The bed in the bedroom is only for pleasant actions. Thus you will have a restful sleep.
Ideally, it would be better to wake up without an alarm. Go to bed at a time that matches your wake-up time. That is, if you have to be up at 6 in the morning, don’t go to bed at 12 at night. Calculate your 7-8 hours of sleep and slowly implement the bedtime. I told you it takes discipline and perseverance, right? And if you have to get up at an early hour, you know the proverb, if you have to, with pleasure. It doesn’t help to grumble daily and whine every morning. What life is this? Shouldn’t we do our best to implement the wake-up time into our ritual as a matter of course?
The first second of the day is very important. Yes, yes, it’s no joke and no exaggeration. If the alarm suddenly wakes us up what will we feel? Fright, unpleasantness, despair, anxiety. If in the first second there will be an unpleasant emotion, if before we even open our eyes we think: oh my, it’s morning, how awful I feel, and I have to do the same thing, go to work, my back hurts, my stomach… if the first thought will be an unpleasant emotion, this will set the mood for the whole day. To counteract, it would be good to replace the negative emotion with a thought of action. That is, instead of the first thought being: oh well, I’m going to work! let’s say: it’s sunny outside, I’m going to get my new shoes today, or I’m going to make my good coffee and drink it by the window. The important thing is to replace the negative emotion from the first second of the day. Discipline and perseverance, remember? I set up my bed in such a way that the first things I see when I open my eyes are a patch of sky and the geraniums in the window. I focus on them, on the clouds, on the blue of the sky, on the pursuit of a flower bud, on what I want to eat well for breakfast. I don’t think that my back hurts or that I have a doctor’s appointment, or what the hell is life that I’m sick. The first second counts. In the first second I smile at life with a good thought.
It is good to have a ritual in the morning. Some things to always do the same. This gives us a sense of control and relaxes us. When you’re depressed or anxious you want to feel safe, that’s the most important thing, and that manifests itself in the tendency to control everything and perfection. If you are aware at all, you realize that you cannot control everything, nothing and no one is perfect, and any form of safety is relative. That doesn’t mean you won’t always try for control and perfection, because you have a constant feeling of insecurity. So in the morning it is good to give ourselves a safety boost through these rituals. I prepare my breakfast, my coffee, go back to bed to enjoy them, read something, write something, make my bed and do morning gymnastics. It gives me the feeling that I am in control of my life, that I am safe, that I have a well-defined path and I have the strength, pleasure and perseverance to stick to it.
Order and discipline. If in the morning you implemented the “rule of the first second”, you smiled at life and you have a pleasant action in mind when you get out of bed, that’s perfect. But tripping over a pair of dirty socks, missing your slippers or the coffee pot in the chaos in the house dampens your enthusiasm instantly. In the evening it would be ideal to leave the house in order, the dishes washed, possibly the clothes chosen for the next day and the shoes cleaned, the wallet in the purse and the keys in their place, if we know we are leaving early. Thus we will have time and mood to enjoy the morning as we have told here.
What do you think, do you find it difficult? I started making these changes years ago, instinctively, and then I read and listened to several psychologists who recommended exactly these things. They have improved my life. I still have rare days when I make an effort for the “first second rule”, but I realize that a negative emotion comes to me and I correct it. I anchor myself on something positive and recover. It was harder at first, but as I practiced daily, the effort to implement lessened. Through discipline and perseverance I maintain my good mood daily and make a beautiful life for myself. I wish you too to have a beautiful life full of joy!